The Prime Minister has appointed Kate de Rothschild Agius, Sir Hugh Roberts, GCVO, FSA, Dr Ashok Roy and Timothy Schroder as Trustees of the Wallace Collection for five years, and Jennifer Eady QC, Rupert Hambro and Jessica Pulay for four years, beginning on 7 January 2013. Chosen for their different areas of expertise, the Trustees will offer guidance in the areas of fundraising, curatorial, conservation and legal affairs, in addition to all other issues relating to the Collection.

Director, Dr Christoph Vogtherr said “We are honoured that these distinguished individuals have offered their expertise, energy and time. The museum will greatly benefit from their guidance and support. I am looking forward to working with them over the coming years.”

Sir John Ritblat, Chairman of the Trustees, said “I feel very fortunate that the Wallace Collection has attracted new Trustees with such depth of experience to ensure that, together with our existing Trustees, we can continue to keep the museum at the forefront of excellence and remain a “must visit” institution.”

Biographical details:

Kate de Rothschild Agius

After graduating from the Courtauld Institute, Kate began her career in the early 1970s in the Drawings Department of the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Old Master Drawings Department at Sotheby’s, before becoming a dealer specialising in Old Master and nineteenth-century drawings, from 1974-2007. She has published numerous scholarly catalogues, and as well as exhibiting at the major art fairs of London, Paris and New York, she has been on the vetting committees of the London and New York fairs. As Chairman of the Patrons of the BritishMuseum she has coordinated charitable giving across the entire breadth of the collections. She has held the position since 2007, and will stand down in 2013. She holds no other public appointments.

Jennifer Eady QC

Jennifer is one of the leading Employment Law Barristers in the country. She undertakes advocacy and advisory work for employers, employees, trade unions, employers’ associations, central and local government, statutory commissions and Non-Governmental Organisations. Jennifer took silk in 2006, having practised at the bar since 1990, and has appeared in many of the leading employment cases of recent years. She also holds part-time judicial office, becoming a Recorder in 2004 and sitting in both County and Crown Courts. In 2008, she was additionally appointed by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills as an independent member of the ACAS Council, and was appointed to her second term in 2012. She is an Honorary Vice-President of the Industrial Law Society, and a Trustee of the Free Representation Unit.

Jessica Pulay

Jessica is Deputy Head of Funding in the Treasury of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where she has worked since 1999. She was previously Executive Director (Capital Markets) at Morgan Stanley. This followed similar roles at Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston, where she began her investment banking career in 1987. She is also Vice-Chairman of the governing council at Queen’s College day-school in London (and has additionally been Chairman of its Finance Committee). She also serves on the fundraising committee of Rugby Portobello Trust. In 2005, she helped to establish Rawatha Orphanage in Sri Lanka, following the December 2004 tsunami.

Rupert Hambro

Rupert was Chairman of Hambros Bank until 1986 when he left with his father and two brothers to set up J O Hambro, a Mergers and Acquisitions and Investment Management business. He also runs Hambro & Partners, a private equity business with investments in a number of businesses and an advisory business. His current positions include Chairman of Theo Fennell PLC (2009- ); Sipsmith – Independent Spirits (2009- ); Cazenove & Loyd (Destination Experts) (2003- ); Member of the Supervisory Board of Bank Gutmann AG (2000- ). He was previously Chairman of Woburn Enterprises Limited, which includes the Abbey, the Safari Park, golf courses and Hotel (2003- 2011). He is also Chairman of the Zoological Society of London’s Development & Strategy Board (2011- ); Chairman of Trustees of The Silver Trust (1988- ); Vice Patron of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (1997- ); Hon. President of the British Association of Adoption & Fostering (2008- ). He is an advisory Board member of Open Europe (2006- ), Chairman of Robinson Hambro (2010- ), and is on the Council of the Royal College of Art (2010- ). He has previously been Chairman of the Museum of London and Museum in Docklands (1998-2005), Treasurer of The National Art Collections Fund (1991- 2003), and Chairman of The Society of Merchants Trading to the Continent (1995-2008). He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Bath and Patron of The Association of British DesignerSilversmiths. He was Prime Warden of Worshipful Company of Goldsmith’s (2009-2010); Liveryman at the Goldsmiths’ Company (1994- ); a Member of the Court of Assistants (1998- ); and Freeman of the Company of Fishmongers (1969- ). He is a Knight of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon, and has received the Walpole Medal ofBritish Excellence. He holds no other public appointments.

Sir Hugh Roberts, GCVO, FSA

Sir Hugh is Surveyor Emeritus of the Queen’s Works of Art, having been Deputy Surveyor from 1988-1996, and Director of the Royal Collection from 1996-2010. He joined Christie Manson and Woods Ltd in 1970, and was a Director and Head of its Decorative Arts Department until 1987. His particular area of expertise is French and English furniture and interior decoration of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; he has written extensively on these subjects in Royal Collection exhibition catalogues and major journals. He has also published For The King’s Pleasure – The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV’s Apartments at Windsor Castle (2001), and The Queen’s Diamonds (2012). He holds no other public appointments.

Dr Ashok Roy

Ashok is an inorganic chemist by background, and a leading specialist in the materials and techniques of Old Master painting. He has spent the last thirty- five years working for the Scientific Department of the National Gallery, and was appointed Scientific Adviser to the Trustees of the National Gallery in 1990 (subsequently Director of Science). His main research interests have been the practical application of scientific methods to the study of works of art in support of their conservation needs, and to understand more fully the material history of works of art, particularly paintings. He has worked on a number of National Gallery exhibitions, including five in the series Art in the Making, devoted to interpreting for the public the material nature of the collection and the application of technical investigations to art-historical research. A long-term interest has been to promote interdisciplinary studies at the National Gallery. In connection with this aim, he has been editor of, and regular contributor to, the National Gallery Technical Bulletin since 1978. He is a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and a Member of the Advisory Council of the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge. He holds no other public appointments.

Timothy Schroder

Timothy Schroder is a curator and freelance lecturer. Following an early career at Christie Manson and Woods Ltd, where he became Director of the Silver Department and an auctioneer, he was Curator of Decorative Arts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1984-89) and a director of Partridge Fine Art (1990-1996). From 1996 to 2000 he was Curator of the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House. He was subsequently a Consultant Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (2000-2009). He is Chairman of the Silver Society (since 2011), a Warden of the Worshipful Company ofGoldsmiths (since 2012), and Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Research Centre (since 2008). He has been a Member of the London Diocesan Advisory Committee since 1995, and a Member of Eton College Collections External AdvisoryPanel since 2011. He is widely published, including among other works The National Trust Book of EnglishDomestic Silver (London, 1988), The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver (Los Angeles, 1988), Renaissance Silver from the Schroder Collection (London, 2007, exhibition staged at the Wallace Collection), and British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 2009), together with numerous articles for Apollo, Burlington Magazine and other journals. He holds no other public appointments.